Free energy landscape of siRNA-polycation complexation: Elucidating the effect of molecular geometry, polymer flexibility, and charge neutralization.

ABSTRACT: The success of medical threatments with DNA and silencing interference RNA is strongly related to the design of efficient delivery technologies. Cationic polymers represent an attractive strategy to serve as nucleic-acid carriers with the envisioned advantages of efficient complexation, low cost, ease of production, well-defined size, and low polydispersity index. However, the balance between efficacy and toxicity (safety) of these polymers is a challenge and in need of improvement. With the aim of designing more effective polycationic-based gene carriers, many parameters such as carrier morphology, size, molecular weight, surface chemistry, and flexibility/rigidity ratio need to be taken into consideration. In the present work, the binding mechanism of three cationic polymers (polyarginin

SUBMITTER: Grasso G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5663398 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature